Fisher v. Dudley

Irving, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. By section 128, of Article 33 of the Code of Public General Laws, as enacted by chapter 538, of the Acts of the General Assembly of 1890, all ballots, to he used and cast at any election in the State, are to he printed and furnished at public expense; and upon these ballots are ²⁴⁴ to be printed tbe names of tbe several candidates according to directions given in succeeding sections enacted by tbe same Act; and tbe refusal of tbe board of supervisors of Baltimore City to place the name of Edward Stabler, Jr. j as a candidate for the First Branch of the City Council of Baltimore City as an independent candidate in a separate place and column other than the column containing the names of candidates of the Republican party, has given rise to this proceeding. The appellants filed their petition in the Baltimore City Court, representing' that Edward Stabler, Jr., had been nominated by more than 200 citizens, including the petitioners, all of whom are registered voters, as an independent candidate for the First Branch of the City Council of Baltimore City; that they are not Republicans, and that they have not nominated Mr. Stabler, because he is a Republican, but wholly irrespective of the. question of political association; and that they have requested that the name of Mr. Stabler should be put upon the ballot ina different place from the column containing the nominations of the Republican party, which party had also nominated Mr. Stabler as a candidate for the same place, as the petitioners and others had done, by a paper containing more than 200 names; but that the supervisors of election had refused to comply with their request, and would not put Mr. Stabler’s name any where but in the Republican group and under the Republican emblem; wherefore the appellants ask for a mandamus upon the supervisors of election compelling them to print the name of Mr. Stabler on the official ballot in the independent group of candidates for the place already mentioned. The appellees answered, denying the right of the petitioners to have Mr. Stabler’s name printed elsewhere on the ballot than in the Republican group.

The Court agreed with the'appellees, and overruled the petitioners’ demurrer to the defendant’s answer, and refused the ²⁴⁵ mandamus. Hence this appeal, which raises the following questions under the new election law: (1.) If two or more political parties or bodies of citizens, calling themselves by a party name, nominate, either by conventions, primary elections, or nomination papers, the same man as a candidate for the same office, has each of the parties who nominated him the right to have his name printed on the official ballots under the name of such party and its emblem, if it has selected one? (2.) If the same man is nominated by a political partjq and by a nomination paper in which no party name is set forth, have the persons signing the nomination papers the right to have the name of their candidate printed on the official ballot in another place than under the party name and emblem of the political party by which such candidate was then nominated? The questions thus raised depend upon the proper construction of section 131, of Article 33 as enacted by the Act of 1890, chapter 538, already mentioned, in conjunction with sections 129 and 130.

Section 129 provides that any convention as hereinafter defined, held for the purpose of making nominations to public office, and also registered voters, to the number hereinafter specified, may nominate candidates for public offices to be filled by election within the State, or any parts thereof. A convention is then defined; and it is also declared in that section that nominations may then be made by means of primary elections without the intervention of any convention. A convention under this section must represent an organized body which polled at the last general election at least one per cent, of the entire vote cast in the State, county, ward, or other division for which the nomination is made., Section 130 provides how a nomination by a convention, or by a primary election shall be certified, and for the addition of a party emblem, and what that may be. ²⁴⁶ Section 131 says: “A candidate for public office may be nominated otherwise than by a convention or primary election in the manner following: A nomination paper-con taming the name of the candidate nominated, his residence, and the office for which he is nominated, shall he signed by registered voters ” residing within the political division for which he is nominated; and, stating the number of signatures necessary for various offices, it names not less than 200 names as necessary where the candidate seeks